Youth have knife crime solutions – Idris Elba

The event comes as latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show recorded knife crime rose by 22% in London in the year to 23 September.

Elba told the group: “I’ve had conversations which are difficult, like ‘Idris, you’re telling people to put away our knives, but what am I going to hold?’

“And I feel like I don’t know what to say to them, because they’re literally holding these out of fear. But they have solutions.”

Some said tougher sentences would be a deterrent, while others said there were too many loopholes when it came to obtaining knives, the actor added.

“They know all the loopholes, so let’s just use your creative minds and go, ‘OK, let’s find ways to help’.

“Use your creative minds to help us, help this whole-society issue.”

Elba said in an Instagram video later that it was a “very important” meeting families of victims and campaign organisations to discuss “what we need to do as a country to fight this”, calling it a non-political issue.